There’s a new Iron Man, Riri Williams

Marvel are at it again. In recent months we have seen a black Captain America, a female Thor, a teenage Hulk and that whole ‘Hail Hydra’ thing. No doubt wallowing in the free publicity that radical changes to beloved characters bring, Marvel have turned their diversification ray at Iron Man. Say hello to Riri Williams – 15 year old MIT super genius.

The kids are all right

Riri features prominently in the images for Marvel’s Divided We Stand status quo shake-up, which will be post Civil War 2. It looks like the kids have had enough of the adults being massive tools.

The relaunched Invincible Iron Man#1 will be by current writer Brian Bendis and artist Stefano Caselli.

Bendis spoke about the shake-up –

We’re in the middle of a very big Tony Stark storyline—actually three storylines converging. His best friend died, his company is collapsing and he’s finding out who his biological parents were all at the same time. That’s stressful for a character who is wired the way Tony is wired and has dependency issues the way Tony does…Tony is also a master at not paying attention to the thing that’s most important and distracting himself with Avengers stuff. How that all shakes out such that Tony is no longer in the armor? You’ll have to wait to find out for the end of Civil War II. But it does create a path for Riri Williams, who Tony will know and will be interacting with very shortly in the comics.

It is unclear if Riri will be taking the name Iron Man, but it would seem unlikely. Because she’s a woman. Fans of Tony shouldn’t worry too much, he will most likely return when there’s a movie coming out.